#i have the most caucasian sounding name ever and I sound white in telephone interviews

[osmiabee]

I get that Terry Crews is an older black man who's grown up making observations on how lack of paternal figures through mass incarceration often damages children and communities. However it's just so grim the way he acted as if black women should keep their mouths shut about raising black men.

The article he flippantly dismissed because it was written by a woman, highlighted the ways that Obama makes stereotypical and degrading remarks about black men and black culture, used the idea of closeted gay black men as a punchline, and often presents women as a dichotomy of "perfect wife" and "faceless thot". Crews immediately sided with the man raised by a white mother with no significant influence from African American culture, (actively having to distance himself from it to gain the presidency) on how to raise 'successful' black men ignoring the well voiced opinion of a black woman on how black male role models should aim to raise strong black men through uplifting their communities rather than degrading them to seem sophisticated.

On top of that and the obvious spiral down Malnourishment Lane™ it's just extra ironic that his 'apology' tweets talked about listening and learning from others when he did the fucking mOsT to ignore and belittle people that were politely calling him out on his bs. Sure, his opinions were shaped by his experience as a black man but a grown ass 50 year old pulling the "oh well!! I'm cancelled!!! Guess I'll dig my heels in and self-victimise as if I didn't make openly mysogynistic and homophobic comments!! Actually everyone is criticising me because I'm black!!!" like we Just don't have time to unpack all that.

Tl;dr This absolutely isn't a call to "cancel Terry Crews" he's a great actor, these views were obviously deeply internalised and his intention was not to hurt people with his comments. However it's doesnt change the fact that people are rightfully frustrated when public figures uphold a mysogynistic and homophobic status quo. It's especially disheartening when they dismiss criticism by playing the victim. Celebrities are people and are absolutely allowed to make mistakes and learn and grow, but those comments were hurtful and unnecessary and overall, we're allowed to be disappointed in celebrities and hope that they do better.